Peter Nixon: My Newton

A Winer Milestone

Sun, 01 May 2005 15:15:59 GMT

Today is Dave Winer's fiftieth birthday. Happy birthday Dave.

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 15:38:11 GMT

Sorry for the blackout.

Soft Wallet

Sun, 27 Jun 2004 06:20:37 GMT

Ian Goss has given me a carrying wallet thing for my Newton. It's leather and soft and very protective and very cool, but I haven't entirely worked out how to use it and all its little pockets. It has a cool stand so I can prop the Newton up on a desk and use it with my lovely Newton keyboard.

Fri, 12 Mar 2004 12:37:38 GMT

What about this? I had no idea so much was possible!

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 09:49:40 GMT

And what about what this guy is doing? Bluetooth, no less.

Sun, 08 Feb 2004 15:06:32 GMT

The Newt backs up happily to the Palm Desktop software (it used to be Claris Organiser, so why shouldn't it?) but I had some problems for a time with synchronising dates and appointments. There were memory complaints. After giving my creaky old Mac a memory kick up the bum (from 160 Mb to 608 Mb) all is good. The Newt wasn't the problem at all.

Tue, 03 Feb 2004 12:18:06 GMT

And here's someone who found an unused Newton that had been in a drawer for years. New batteries and the data were still there!

Tue, 03 Feb 2004 12:08:49 GMT

Is this really a way to interface the Newton with Airport?

Fri, 30 Jan 2004 12:46:28 GMT

"goss" bought a Newton keyboard on Ebay and has sold it to me. It has altered my Newton experience. I haven't totally sussed its capabilities but it does improve the experience and is very cleverly implemented.

Thu, 20 Nov 2003 11:37:05 GMT

I'm actually really liking the To Do functions now.

Tue, 18 Nov 2003 13:51:54 GMT

Today I was thinking, "My Newt is a little slow. it's not colour, not a lot new is happening for it. Wouldn't I like to spend big dollars on a Palm thing that didn't do the same handwriting recognition?' Then I thought, "NO!"

Wed, 02 Jul 2003 14:33:23 GMT

"Goss" left his Newton at work, so there were only two. Goodness, Paul Heck's is in good condition!

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 15:19:52 GMT

I'm at a meeting all day later today at which there will be THREE Newton users!

Tue, 10 Jun 2003 14:16:14 GMT

Here you go Paul; This is the source of all Newton software you could ever want. I'll submit some opinions soon as to what is worth having or not. United Network of Newton Archives

Sat, 07 Jun 2003 23:57:01 GMT

Paul Heck has a Newton! He wants links to helpful information and programs. Coming soon.

Sat, 07 Jun 2003 23:53:06 GMT

Too long between drinks!

Thu, 03 Apr 2003 16:25:23 GMT

If you require a Serial dongle for the Newton you can still get them from an Apple Auth. Repair provider (they are a service part). They are $33 inc GST. Part no. 922-2971 Cable adaptor to Din 9. There it is. There isn't much left that is easy to get for a Newt, but this was no problem.

Tue, 01 Apr 2003 14:37:31 GMT

Well the fact is that Apple still sell the necessary interface!

Sat, 15 Mar 2003 23:45:45 GMT

I mentioned before that the first problem was finding a power supply. One that works comes from Tandy's. It is a Chinese made Digitor, model number M 9922. It is a regulated 6.0 volt, 1.0 Amp international AC adaptor. It is a little less powerful than the one which would have been supplied with a new MP2100, but it works fine and charges very quickly. Of course the power packs are old and do not hold charge for the month they would have originally. Not to worry; a few days is fine. We have sourced a site for new power packs, but they are expensive. Better are the instructions to overhaul them with rechargeable batteries. more on this later. All right then; we have power. Now how do we link with the Mac? (Or even Windows?) More soon.

Sun, 23 Feb 2003 01:09:12 GMT

Have just finished the first week of teaching for the year. The Newton came up in the multimedia classes. Students were impressed by the intelligence of the thing, and by the screen size.

Mon, 10 Feb 2003 09:57:52 GMT

I'll just elaborate on the demonstration I made to my friend. It was late in the day and I scrawled on the screen (in the built in notepad application; nothing to do with addresses or appointments) "Lunch with Andrew at Fast Pasta". While Andrew was going into raptures at how good the handwriting recognition was (it had read my scrawl with two pints of beer under my belt flawlessly and fast) I tapped the assist button. What happened next surprised even me, because there were a few subtleties I had not noticed before. A confirmation slip came up. "Slip" is Newton-talk for a dialogue box or an alert. The Newton had reasoned that it was to late for lunch today, that I was next free at lunch time tomorrow, that I liked lunch at midday (it would learn if I changed the time), and that I probably meant Andrew Smiles because I had looked his phone number more often than any other Andrew in my phone book. I could however choose from other Andrews via a popup menu. If I clicked on Andrew's name his card popped up ready to dial his number. similarly Fasta Pasta numbers were available ready to dial. There was a button at the bottom of the slip which, if clicked, would enter the meeting in my diary, with my preset alarm time or a choice I could make then and there. I'm pretty certain modern PDAs, which are very smart I know, still don't do some of this stuff.

Thu, 30 Jan 2003 14:13:48 GMT

As I look at what I just wrote I am still astounded. I just demonstrated it to a friend. I don't believe that any of the current PDAs have this kind of intelligence. They have a lot the Newton doesn't have, but not this.

Tue, 28 Jan 2003 10:45:05 GMT

So I learnt to do stuff with my Newton. With no moving parts, a RISC processor that is faster than the original in the Mac I'm still using, and an efficient OS it's pretty damn zippy. In its native state it has all the PDA applications you might expect and they all work rather well. Even "Dave" couldn't complain about a built-in outliner! Each application seems to know about the other. For example a person mentioned as a participant at a meeting is sought out in the phone book.

Sat, 25 Jan 2003 11:00:02 GMT

Well of course "goss" was right. Once we had the right power supply all was well with two of the Newtons. One is stuck in a constant cycle of restarts. We haven't yet found a solution to this. Intuitively one might suspect a dodgy on/off switch, or, in a more complex computer, an OS problem. Doesn't seem to be the case here.

Fri, 24 Jan 2003 15:36:42 GMT

The charger problem was interesting, "goss" insisting on voltage switching power packs, while I blithely went and bought any old thing with the right voltage and amperage. Who was right?

Fri, 24 Jan 2003 03:17:26 GMT

We bought them through BidPay at the vendor's request; not a cheap option I have to say. There were problems in communication and (I'll be kind) problems of cultural differences with the American vendor. Then the shipment got lost. Eventually they arrived, two of the three actually working with their old tired power packs! The next problem was to find chargers for them.

Tue, 21 Jan 2003 07:57:01 GMT

So when "Goss" found some Newton Message Pad 2100s on eBay I was interested. This was the last model released and was beginning to show the true potential of the device.

Tue, 14 Jan 2003 12:16:03 GMT

I was interested in Newtons from the start. When I found an extremely talented young woman, an ex-student of mine, was an obsessive Apple devotee and had bought the first Newton I was hooked. The handwriting recognition, the total system recognition of people and places sold me.

Sun, 12 Jan 2003 02:24:23 GMT

This is a test.